1 . How to Be Funny?

Humor can help you connect with other people and make unpleasant situations a little more bearable.     1     But it’s not that hard once you tap into your inner sense of humor. Even if you don’t think you’re naturally funny, there are things you can do to make yourself and other people laugh.

Learn from funny people. You can expand your reach a good deal by listening to other funny people. Whether they’re professional comedians, your parents, your kids, or your boss, learning from the funny people in your life is a key step towards being a funny person.     2     Look for what you admire most in these people.

Broaden your factual knowledge for joke material.     3     They may be your amazing knowledge of 17th-century poetry, your familiarity with fishing trips that went wrong, etc. Whatever the material is, it needs to resonate(引起共鸣)with your audience.

    4     Being funny doesn’t come in a one-size-fits-all package. What makes you funny is unique to you and the way you observe the world. Trust that you do have a funny bone; as babies, we laugh from four months of age, and all children express humor naturally from the kindergarten age, using humor to entertain themselves and others. It’s already in you. You just need to bring it out!

Read, read, read. Get your hands on everything that is funny, and consume it like your mom told you not to. Chemists become chemists by reading and practicing chemistry. Sports writers become sports writers by reading and writing about sports.     5    

A．Strike while the iron is hot.

B．Trust in your inner sense of humor.

C．Observe the funnier things these people say or do.

D．Being funny might seem to take a great deal of work.

E．It’s much easier to find funny moments in familiar material.

F．You’ll become a humorous person by reading and practicing jokes.

G．The better you know someone, the easier it will be to make them laugh.

2 . A sugar replacement called erythritol (赤藓糖醇) has been linked to blood clotting (血液凝固), stroke, heart attack and death, according to a new study.

“The degree of risk was not modest,” said lead study author Dr. Stanley Hazen. People with existing risk factors for heart disease will be twice as likely to experience the risk if they have the highest levels of erythritol in their blood. Erythritol appears to be causing blood platelets (血小板) to clot more readily. Clots can break off and travel to the heart or the brain, causing a heart attack or a stroke.

Erythritol is a sugar alcohol, a carb found naturally in many fruits and vegetables. However, artificially manufactured in massive quantities, erythritol has become an extremely popular additive to low-carb products.

The discovery of the connection between erythritol and cardiovascular issues was purely accidental. Hazen’s research had a simple goal: find unknown chemicals or compounds in a person’s blood. To do so, the team analyzed 1,157 blood samples. “We found this substance that seemed to play a big role, but we didn’t know it was erythritol, a sweetener until later,” said Hazen. To confirm the findings, the team tested another two batches of blood samples and found that higher levels of erythritol were connected to a greater risk of heart attack, stroke or death within three years.

“This certainly sounds an alarm,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of a hospital inDenver. “Science needs to take a deeper div e into erythritol and in a hurry, because this substance is widely available right now. If it’s harmful, we should know about it.”

Hazen agreed,“I normally don’t get up on a pedestal (崇高地位) and sound the alarm, but this is something that I think we need to be looking at carefully.”

1. About the risk, what does Hazen’s word in paragraph 2 mean?

A．It is not worth considering.	B．It is removed by erythritol.
C．It should not be underestimated.	D．It is just present in people with disease.

2. What do we know about erythritol?

A．Its quality is uncertain.	B．It has been used widely in food.
C．It is manufactured by artists.	D．It mainly exists in fruits.

3. What can be concluded from the last two paragraphs?

A．Erythritol is not available to people.

B．Hazen likes warning people about potential dangers.

C．People have realized that erythritol is dangerous.

D．Further research should be done on erythritol.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．The Accidental Discovery of a New Sweetener

B．The Potential Health Risks of Erythritol Uncovered

C．The Rise of Erythritol as a Popular Sugar Substitute

D．The Surprising Benefits of Erythritol in Diet Products

3 . Climate change is causing more areas to turn into deserts. This issue is affecting the lives of 250 million people as land that used to be good for farming becomes dry and unproductive. Around one-third of the world’s land is impacted, including regions in Africa, southern Europe, Asia and America.

Sand to Green is a Moroccan company that can transform a patch of desert into a sustainable (可持续的) and profitable plantation in five years, according to Wissal Ben Moussa, its co-founder and chief agricultural officer. The solution is using agroforestry (农林业)to create a new kind of agriculture that is sustainable and that can be resilient (有适应力的) in front of climate change.

The system can be set up close to any source of salty water, which Sand to Green cleans using energy from the sun. It then grows different types of fruit trees and plants together in the same area—a method called mixed planting—and waters the plants’ roots directly with the cleaned water, to reduce water loss to the air. The soil is regenerated using what Sand to Green calls “green manure”, a mixture that includes compost, biochar(生物炭)and microorganisms that help the soil “wake up”. Biochar is a form of charcoal that can help dry soil hold on to water.

In a five-hectare trial in southern Morocco that’s been running since 2017, Sand to Green has tried out a variety of plants in search of the best performers. Among the intercropping herbs (草本植物) that have been successfully trialed are rosemary, geranium, vetiver and citronella, which Ben Moussa describes as “very low-maintenance and very high-profit”.

Sand to Green is now working to scale up to a 20-hectare commercial site, also in southern Morocco. It says a site of that size would cost around $475,000 to set up and would start bringing financial returns in about five years.

According to Ben Moussa, with this system they create biodiversity, which means better soil, healthier crops and a bigger yield. The plantation can generate 1.5 times more yield, thus making more money than a farm that grows only one type of crop in the same space.

1. What phenomenon does the author describe in paragraph 1?

A．Deforestation.	B．Desertification.
C．Global warming.	D．Urbanization.

2. Why did Sand to Green use agroforestry?

A．To preserve the crop’s survival rate.

B．To protect water from pollution.

C．To make a new type of soil.

D．To help people adapt to climate change.

3. What can we learn about Sand to Green?

A．It aims to plant more trees.

B．It earns a good reputation.

C．It develops new plants.

D．It produces good results.

4. What does the underlined phrase “scale up” mean in paragraph 5?

A．Expand.

B．Object.

C．Refer.

D．Prefer.

4 . Imagine taking a flying taxi to the airport, or hopping over crowded city streets at rush hour, getting where you want to go far faster than you could in a car. Believe it or not, you might be able to do these things in an electric air taxi sooner than you think.

An air taxi is a small aircraft that can carry people from place to place. Air taxis don’t need a long runway like planes do. They can go straight up and down, like a helicopter.

In June, the FAA—the government group in charge of America’s skies—agreed to allow a company called Joby Aviation to start testing their new air taxi.

Joby has been making and testing flying taxis since 2017. But this is the first time that they’re testing a taxi that’s been built in a factory. Before that, all their taxis were made by hand.

By 2025, Joby hopes to start carrying passengers for money. They’ve teamed up with Delta Air Lines to create a program to fly people from their homes to the airport. Joby also expects their air taxis to provide a ride-sharing service in the air. Just like you might use an app to order a car to pick you up, you could use an app to order an air taxi.

Compared with helicopters, Joby claims their taxis are cheaper. The company expects to charge about $3 a mile (1.6 kilometers) at first. But over time, they hope to bring the price down to less than $1 per mile.

Joby isn’t the only company to develop air taxis. Companies around the world are working on similar vehicles. France even plans to use a few air taxis in Paris during next summer’s Olympic Games.

But there’s still a lot to do before air taxis become common. For one thing, governments need to make rules about where, when, and how these taxis can fly.

Still, it seems likely that air taxis will be part of the future of travel. The FAA says, “We could see air taxis in the skies by 2024 or 2025.”

1. What do the underlined words “hopping over” in paragraph 1 mean?

A．Moving below.

B．Walking across.

C．Jumping into.

D．Flying over.

2. What can we know about Joby’s air taxis?

A．They are factory-made from the start.

B．They were developed several years ago.

C．They will offer service to passengers through the FAA.

D．They will be used during the next Olympic Games in Paris.

3. What does paragraph 5 mainly talk about?

A．Joby’s plan about air taxis.	B．The history of Joby Aviation.
C．Air taxi team’s service promises.	D．Instructions for using a new app.

4. In what way are air taxis better than helicopters?

A．They are more comfortable.	B．They are more intelligent.
C．They are cheaper.	D．They are faster.

5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The “Three Mountains (Fragrant Hills, Jade Spring Hill and Longevity Hill) and Five Gardens (Jingming Garden, Jingyi Garden, The Summer Palace, Changchun Garden and Yuanmingyuan)” are important landmarks in Beijing that represent its rich cultural and historical heritage.     1     (original) used as leisure retreats for the imperial family, these sites are now treasured for their     2     (nature) beauty and cultural significance.

Unfortunately, many valuable cultural items     3     (house) in these locations were lost due to damage caused by Western colonialist forces. However, a recent project has recreated 69 long-lost cultural relics in digital form,     4     are now being displayed to the public. This achievement is the result of cooperative efforts involving many volunteers from both home     5     abroad. Scholars and artists     6     (study) in France, as well as overseas students,     7     (contribute) valuable information about these scattered (分散的) relics.

The project has created a digital museum that showcases these cultural relics in seven different     8     (category). With technologies like virtual reality, visitors can have     9     unique and up-close experience of appreciating these items.     10     (reach) a wider audience, the digital museum team is also organizing offline touring exhibitions.

6 . Here are some free apps you’ll want to consider downloading.

Pocket Casts

Pocket Casts is an app worth checking out if you listen to podcasts(播客)and want to discover great podcasts and easily manage your library. Browse(浏览)podcasts by charts, networks, and categories, and then add the ones you like to play episodes on the fly and create your own playback queue.

Duolingo

Duolingo offers a variety of interactive courses in over 30 languages, from Spanish to Chinese. The app personalizes your learning experience, adjusts to your skill level, and provides exercises across speaking, listening, reading, and writing. With Duolingo, you can track your progress, set daily goals, and join a community of learners. It’s ideal for anyone looking to pick up a new language or improve their skills.

Zedge

Zedge is the app you’ll want to use to personalize your device’s ringtones, notifications, and alarm sounds. The app offers thousands of high-quality sounds that are free and easy to download. Browse through the categories or use the search function to look for a specific sound. You can set a custom(定制的)ringtone for each person in your contact list, so you always know who’s calling.

Remindee

Ever find yourself browsing through an app, only to see something you need to remind yourself of later? Remindee is a simple app that lets you create reminders from anywhere within your device, no matter what app you’re currently browsing. Just ta p the share button and then tap the Remind Me option to create a reminder. Set the date and time you want for your reminder, and you’re finished.

1. What can you do with Duolingo?

A．Learn a new language with diverse exercises.

B．Order food from international restaurants.

C．Play video games in multiple languages.

D．Translate documents professionally.

2. Who may be interested in Zedge?

A．Chefs looking for new recipes.

B．People wanting to learn new languages.

C．Users seeking to customize device sounds.

D．Travelers searching for their own reminders.

3. If you want to look back at what you’ve browsed, which app is best for you?

A．Pocket Casts.	B．Duolingo.
C．Zedge.	D．Remindee.

7 . Britain’s toughest grandmother cheated death three times to become a champion powerlifter and is still pumping iron in her 70s. Pat Reeves has _________ two terminal cancer diagnoses and a high-speed car crash.

She _________ weightlifting in 1982 when she was 36, after receiving her first terminal diagnosis due to a brain tumor (肿瘤). She _________ a plant-based diet and began running marathons and _________. She hoped that it would _________ her slow-growing tumor. She was encouraged by her bodybuilding _________ to try powerlifting and fell in love with it, quickly breaking records and _________ titles at competitions she entered. For 10 years, she traveled the world, _________ in national and global events.

But in December, 1993, she was _________ by another terminal cancer diagnosis; this time she was told she had bone cancer. Reeves __________ to let it defeat her and continued with her healthy and __________ lifestyle in an attempt to make the tumors __________, and was declared cancer-free in mid-2016.

In September, 2018, she was involved in a high-speed __________. The accident left her with crushed lungs and led to a(n)__________ disease that occurred when lung tissue was __________. She was told she only had three months to __________ in June, 2019. But she survived again. However, she said, “It does still __________ me, but I’ve found a way to train and I still do powerlifting even with my setbacks.” She has broken around 200 __________ and can lift up to nearly 300 pounds.

We may meet many __________ in life. However, as long as we have a positive attitude, we can __________ overcome them.

1.

A．suffered

B．survived

C．recovered

D．treated

2.

A．took up

B．saved up

C．kept up

D．drew up

3.

A．rejected

B．examined

C．adopted

D．experienced

4.

A．fantasy

B．innovation

C．interaction

D．bodybuilding

5.

A．enhance

B．stop

C．attack

D．inspect

6.

A．coach

B．judge

C．athlete

D．teacher

7.

A．missing

B．accepting

C．securing

D．beating

8.

A．competing

B．accelerating

C．charging

D．hiding

9.

A．puzzled

B．designed

C．embarrassed

D．shocked

10.

A．hesitated

B．refused

C．attempted

D．claimed

11.

A．active

B．lazy

C．popular

D．boring

12.

A．bigger

B．longer

C．smaller

D．stronger

13.

A．occasion

B．crash

C．event

D．adventure

14.

A．eye

B．skin

C．heart

D．lung

15.

A．broken

B．clean

C．healthy

D．strong

16.

A．walk

B．work

C．connect

D．live

17.

A．protect

B．support

C．affect

D．scold

18.

A．arguments

B．records

C．media

D．devices

19.

A．successes

B．opportunities

C．pleasures

D．difficulties

20.

A．barely

B．instantly

C．eventually

D．slightly

8 . If there’s one thing I’ve realized since becoming a male college student, it’s that finding a summer job is nearly impossible. I’ve applied to so many places and I’ve experienced so many interviews, but I always either get straight-up refusal or never hear from the company again.

One time, I even called one of the companies multiple times, but the manager avoided me. I was close to giving up. I felt like I was the only one struggling hard. I had a pretty good resume, and I always dressed nicely for my interviews, so why couldn’t I get a job?

Well, the reason is actually right in front of me—I am a student. Companies generally want students who can work all year long, but most of them aren’t willing to be flexible with schedules. I couldn’t tell you how many times interviewers told me that they were looking for someone permanent.

I tried looking for jobs marked as temporary ones. And I even once tried to apply through a temporary agency. But it didn’t work. Even if I wanted to work during the school year, none of the companies wanted to hire me because of my limited weekday availability. And despite not knowing if I could juggle (尽量兼顾) both school and a job, I even started to tell interviewers that I would like to work during the school year and give up my weekends. But I had no luck.

I’m not sure if there are others like me out there. But if you are going through something similar, what I want to tell you is to keep on trying. Despite being rejected so many times, I still applied for any job that I was qualified for. I even started my job search before the semester ended to get ahead. Eventually, I got my ideal summer job.

I know it’s frustrating, and you may feel like you’ve tried everything—that’s how I’ve felt for a long time. And now, with companies requiring years of experience, it’s even harder to get a job if you’re someone like me. But don’t give up. Keep searching and applying, sign up for sites that send you job offers and look on the university’s website for on-campus jobs.

1. What does the author want to convey in paragraph 2?

A．His brilliant academic records.

B．The cause of his unemployment.

C．His jobless confusion in summer.

D．The social prejudice to graduates.

2. Why did the temporary agency fail the author?

A．He was troubled with schoolwork.

B．He was thought to have tight work time.

C．He was unwilling to balance study and work.

D．He was regarded as an inexperienced student.

3. What can be concluded from paragraph 5?

A．Well begun is half done.

B．Actions speak louder than words.

C．Everything comes to him who waits.

D．All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

4. What is the author’s main purpose in writing the last paragraph?

A．To give advice.	B．To correct an error.
C．To compare occupations.	D．To recall regrettable experiences.

9 . An amusement park in France has come up with an unusual way of picking up litter. They have trained crows (乌鸦) to pick up small pieces of litter in order to earn a reward (奖励).

Puy du Fou is the second most popular theme park in France. The park puts on historical shows about different periods of time. For example, they have had shows about the time of the Vikings and the time of the Romans.

For some of the shows, Puy du Fou uses trained birds. At times as many as 300 birds fly at the same time. One day Christophe Gaborit, who works with the birds, started wondering if birds could be trained to pick up litter. Several years ago, Mr. Gaborit began working with two rooks. Rooks are a kind of crow. They are known for being clever and for working well with humans.

Mr. Gaborit created a special box to train his crows. The box had two drawers. The crows were trained to put a piece of litter into one drawer. When they did that. Mr. Gaborit would slide a board to show a small treat for the crow in the other drawer.

Once the crows learned that they could get food by putting litter in the box, they became good at flying around and picking up small pieces of litter. They always seemed to want more food. Mr. Gaborit said that sometimes the rooks would try to trick him by bringing back something that was not litter, like a piece of wood.

This year, Mr. Gaborit and Puy du Fou decided that they should train more crows, so that they could help clean the park. Nicolas de Villiers, who ran the park, said that one of their reasons for doing this was to show “that nature itself can teach us to take care of the environment”.

1. Why do the rooks pick up litter?

A．To earn a treat.	B．To gain their master’s love.
C．To exchange for money.	D．To protect the environment.

2. How did Mr. Gaborit train his two crows?

A．By teaching them the meaning.	B．By using a special box.
C．By showing them historical shows.	D．By punishing wrong behaviors.

3. What can we infer from paragraph 5?

A．The rooks are very smart.

B．Wood is some kind of litter.

C．The rooks fly around to look for food.

D．Mr. Gaborit is strict with the trained birds.

4. Where is the text most likely from?

A．A school textbook.	B．A government report.
C．A nature magazine.	D．A research paper.

10 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What does the speaker suggest doing at the beach?

A．Taking a walk.

B．Enjoying a picnic.

C．Playing volleyball.

2. Where will the listeners go on the second day?

A．A park.

B．The coast.

C．A cinema.

3. When can the listeners visit the local markets during the trip?

A．On the first day.

B．On the third day.

C．On the fourth day.

4. What does the speaker remind the listeners to take in the end?

A．A camera.

B．A hat.

C．A map.